


Museums are Great for Kids and Romance

by down_into_underland



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, M/M, So is Matt, keith is like nine, keith is shiro's adopted brother, matt is a tour guide, shiro is in college, space museum au, tour guide AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-08-10 01:08:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7824280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/down_into_underland/pseuds/down_into_underland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shiro promised to take his little brother Keith to the Air and Space museum for his birthday, little did he know he would meet the cutest tour guide in the entire universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Museums are Great for Kids and Romance

**Author's Note:**

> I love shatt and completely blame @dicaxasinus on tumblr (epsilonabsol on ao3) for this new obsession. I want them to be happy and gay together since the previously mentioned asshole fills my brain with angst

“Shiro! Shiro! Hurry up!” A young black haired boy pulled at the sleeve of Shiro’s jacket as he pulled the older boy up the large stone steps of the museum.

“Calm down, Keith! The museum isn’t going anywhere.” Shiro smiled at the excited boy at his side. It was the weekend after Keith’s ninth birthday, and Shiro had promised to take his little brother to the Air and Space Museum as a present. Shiro was currently in college studying astrophysics and ever since his family had adopter Keith, Keith looked up to Shiro as a hero. Shiro hadn’t been surprised when Keith begged to go to this museum for his birthday, and honestly it made Shiro so happy to see Keith so excited to learn about space. Keith had already started reading everything his young mind could comprehend about space and had wanted to go learn about the history of space travel for a while now.

Shiro took Keith’s tiny hand and entered the museum and watched as Keith’s eyes lit up brighter than the stars against a clear night sky. Shiro was instantly being pulled towards a giant replica space shuttle hanging from the ceiling as Keith began to beg Shiro to take his photo with it. Shiro of course indulged the small boy before guiding him towards where their tour was going to start. Shiro had signed them up for a kids friendly tour of the museum since he knew if keith asked him to explain anything, he would probably end up confusing the poor boy.

As more of a crowd began to form, Keith began talking to another younger boy about a large diagram of the computer systems within a plane. Shiro smiled at the two children when someone walked up beside him.

“Pidge, are you confusing that poor boy?” Shiro felt like someone had punched him in his heart when he looked to the boy standing at his side. The boy had an unruly mop of light brown hair and large wired rimmed glasses perched on his nose. He was obviously the older brother of the small boy next to Keith, since they looked almost identical. The boy standing to Shiro’s side was wearing one of the museum’s uniforms, and damn did it look adorable on him.

“No! This is Keith! He’s my new friend and he’s really smart!” The small boy, Pidge answered holding onto Keith’s arm. Keith had gone quiet and pulled away to hang onto Shiro’s arm again. Keith was a very excitable and talkative kid when it came to things he was interested in, but around new people, especially adults,  Keith was a very shy child. The cute uniformed boy next to Shiro crouched down to Keith’s level and smiled warmly.

“Hello Keith, thank you for being friends with Pidge. Can I be your friend too? My name is Matt!” Matt held a hand out to Keith who stared at it emotionless. Shiro nudged at Keith who looked up at his older brother for reassurance.

“Keith, be polite.” Shiro spoke as Keith hesitantly shook Matt’s hand.

“Do you work here? Is that why you’re dressed like that?” Keith asked. Pidge popped over excitedly next to his brother.    

“Matt takes kids on tours here! He’s trying to be an astronaut like our dad!”

“Shiro wants to be an astronaut too!” Keith and Pidge began excitedly talking and bragging about their respective family members and their dreams of space.

“So you want to go to space too?” Shiro finally found his voice again and was able to speak to the adorable tour guide. Matt looked from the children in front of them and turned to Shiro with excitement in his eyes.

“Yes! It’s not everyday I meet someone trying to go into the same profession as me. My dad has been to space before and I love the idea of going as well.”

“That’s really cool, I’m Shiro by the way. I’m studying to be a pilot right now.”

“A pilot? That’s so cool! I don’t think I could ever have a steady enough hand to be a pilot! Oops, I should probably start the tour soon, let’s talk more after the tour, ok?” Matt ran off to the front of the crowd and called everyone to attention as he began the tour. Matt made sure to talk directly to the group of kids gathered at the front of the crowd. The kids were laughing and listening intently to Matt as he began leading the group through the museum halls.

The entirety of the tour, Shiro’s eyes were glued to Matt. Shiro didn’t know what it was about the smaller tour guide, but there was something about him that captured all of Shiro’s attention. Maybe it was the way his warm brown eyes lit up when he started talking about different mineral samples that have been collected from space. Maybe it was the warm smile he gave to Pidge whenever the young boy would chime in with a joke or little tid bit of information as if he himself was the tour guide. Maybe it was the way his nose crinkled up when he laughed too hard at one of his own jokes. Or maybe it was the cute way his voice changed when he was impersonating his own father during one of his many anecdotes.

“This here is a sample taken from the dust of a meteorite! Now this little vial of dust may not look like much, but it’s actually very important to the scientists trying to find life on other planets!” After Matt spoke, the children huddled around him started cheering for aliens.

“I wanna meet an alien princess!” A small boy in blue cried from next to where Keith was.

“But what if the aliens are mean?” Another larger boy in a puffy yellow jacket asked.

“If the aliens are mean, I’ll beat them up!” Shiro laughed as Keith finally spoke up and then proceeded to argue with the boy in blue about who would be able to fight more aliens.

“Now now, let’s save up our energy. After all, we’ve finally reached our interactive room. Where we invite all of you to come fly in and design your own space shuttle, learn about and visit the planets, and learn much more!” Matt stood at the entrance to kids play area, handing pamphlets to the parents about the play area as all of the kids ran off to play on the space shuttle and planet play equipment. Shiro watched as Keith ran off with Pidge, and the boys in blue and yellow to the kids version of the space simulator. His attention then turned to Matt who was watching his little brother affectionately from the entrance. Shiro walked over to the shorter boy.

“Those four sure are excitable, aren’t they?” Shiro asked, causing Matt to jump slightly. Matt turned to see who it was that startled him to find Shiro, and smiled.

“Yeah, they are. I love kids, it just makes me so happy to see them excited to learn about something that’s so magnificent.” Shiro noticed the shine in Matt’s eyes and started to wonder what else could cause those eyes to shine like that. Was Matt the kind of guy whose eyes would light up when he watched his favorites movie? Or maybe he was an animal lover whose eyes lit up when he saw a puppy? Matt definitely seemed like the guy who would like stargazing. Shiro’s mind was flooded with images of a happy and excited Matt sitting under the stars.

“...Shiro? Hello? Shiro??” Shiro was snapped out of his fantasy when Matt called out to him, looking up at Shiro concerned and confused.

“Oh, sorry! I guess I zoned out there.” Shiro could feel his neck and face starting to heat up.

“That’s ok, I zone out all the time when I’m reading something or working in a lab. Sometimes it can get bothersome though. Like this one time, I was in a chemistry lab and I accidently grabbed the wrong chemical and my instructor kept asking me what I was trying to do with those chemicals, but I didn’t even hear him! Talk about a nasty surprise when the whole mixture bubbled up over the test tube! I actually ended up making a completely different mixture from a later chapter somehow, but I still got yelled at. It’s weird though, I don’t zone out when I’m doing really anything else, but when I get working I just lose myself. And….Oh wow, I started rambling I’m so sorry! You probably didn’t care to hear all of that, right?” Matt’s face was filled with emotions as he spoke, it seemed like every single ounce of emotion he felt he expressed in his voice and the way he smiled. Shiro started to lose himself in watching the way Matt’s cheeks lifted up when he smiled wide and the way he used his hands to tell his stories.

“No I don’t mind at all, I like listening to you talk.” Shiro smiled sweetly down at Matt whose face lit up red like a cherry.

“Oh, um, thanks? I think, right? Uh, I like it when you listen to me talk...wait that sounded weird didn’t it? Oh man, I’m really not good at this…” Matt looked down slightly dejected. Shiro placed a hand on Matt’s shoulder gently.

“Hey, really it’s ok! Don’t worry so much, it wasn’t that weird...ok, so maybe it was a little weirdly worded. But I don’t mind, honest.”

“Really? Usually most people would’ve made some excuse to leave by now...I seem to always scare away cute boys.” Matt was pouting slightly as Shiro’s face grew red and his began fiddling with bottom of his shirt.

“So I’m a cute boy then?”

“Shit did I say that out loud? Oh God..” Matt hid his bright red face in his hands. Shiro laughed a little awkwardly as both boys stood facing each other blushing bright and avoiding any sort of eye contact. The both of them were slowly working up some sort of courage to speak first, each of them silently pleading the other to say something. Finally, Shiro spoke up.

“So, did you wanna go get something to eat sometime?” Shiro asked softly. Matt finally looked up to Shiro with a bright grin.

“Yeah, I’d really like that.” Shiro smiled and was about to speak when he heard yelling from the space flight game.

“Lance stop cheating!”

“I’m not cheating! You’re cheating! Right Hunk?”

“Well, actually I think you cheated by throwing your shoe at Keith…”

“See! You’re just mad because I’m better than you!”

“No you’re not Keith!”

“Guys come one, you’re making Pidge upset!” Hunk was rubbing Pidge’s shoulders as tears formed in the corner of the youngest boy’s eyes. Matt and Shiro shared a tired sigh before smiling at each other.

“I should probably go make sure Pidge is ok, but uh, here!” Matt scribbled something down on a pamphlet before shoving it into Shiro’s hands and running off to comfort Pidge who was now more angry and embarrassed than anything. Shiro looked down at the colorful pamphlet in his hands to see a phone number scribbled down. Shiro smiled and tucked the paper into his pocket before running off to Keith, who was silently glaring at Lance who was getting a stern talking to by his own parents.

“Come on Keith, it’s getting late, and we’re supposed to go meet mom at Friendly’s right?” Keith’s eyes lit up at the mention of Friendly’s and quickly ran over to grab onto Shiro’s hand.

“Yeah! I want that shark sundae with the ice cream that makes my tongue tickle!”

“Ok, ok, we’ll get you your shark sundae, but we have to get there first!” Shiro picked up Keith and put him on his shoulders as the small boy giggled and turned to his new friends.

“Bye Pidge! Bye Hunk!” Keith glared at Lance and spoke in a much angrier tone “Bye Lance…” All three boys waved goodbye to Keith as Shiro turned to smile back at Matt.

“See ya Matt, thanks for everything!” Shiro waved and Matt smiled giddily to himself as he watched Shiro walk off with Keith bouncing happily from his shoulders.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh man i'm so funny aren't I? By the way, the ice cream sundae i mentioned at the end is an actual thing if you didn't know look here: http://www.friendlys.com/wp-content/themes/netplus/img/production/thumbnails/menu/kids_desserts_shark-beach-sundae.png
> 
> Follow me on tumblr: down-into-underland


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